Living Casarano

Casarano is characterized by the presence of the Mediterranean wild bush typical of South Italy with certain elements lent by the Middle East such as the Palestinian Oak.
Thanks to its rich pinewoods, its country landscape, and its closeness to the Serra of the so called  “Murgia Salentina” Casarano is a perfect start point for many excursions. At its back, to South-East, you find the Serra of the area called Manfio, a country place rich of carobs and pines and of many small plants typical of Salento such as capers, myrtles, heathers and other officinal plants. The Serra spreads at the back of the Basilian crypt Grotta del Crocefisso, which you can in fact reach by walking. A few kilometres further you can get to the natural park “Madonna della Serra” and to “Bosco Occhiazzi”, in Ruffano. In these woods, whit their many roads formed by the continuous passage of animals and men, you can see the gigantic protagonists of the Mediterranean vegetation: Oaks, Pines and Carobs. The area is provided with public toilets, benches and tables to have a break. Going West you arrive at the beautiful pinewood Serra di Supersano. Here is one of the best landscape of Casarano’s outskirts, the protected area Boschetto Belvedere, where nature and early Christian architectures mix in a suggestive combination (here you find the crypt Madonna di Celimanna).

 In the park you can admire one of the most interesting kind of tree for lovers of vegetation, the big oak “Farneto” , with its large diameter and thick leaves. It is now a rare specimen of a kind of tree which used to be very popular in Salento, like the oak “Vallonea”. Worth to be mentioned is also the possibility to reach the sea at only 12 km of distance. The pinewood of Marina di Ugento is characterized by many kilometres of sandy beach with its downs plunged into sea-pines and coastal bush.